[A] 30-year-old woman, who has not been named, was walking down the street in Canada when she was shot.

She only realised she had been shot when she felt “heat and pain” in her chest and saw blood when she looked down, according to a report published in the Sage journal.

She was treated at a nearby hospital, where she had her breast implants removed. During the surgery, surgeons found that the only injury she had sustained was one broken rib.

They also found a “bullet tract” in her left implant, and the bullet below the right implant, which had been flipped upside down.

The incident was recorded in an academic paper published in a Sage journal.

Dr Giancarlo McEvenue, who wrote the paper, said the woman’s left breast implant subsequently must have “deflected” the bullet from her heart and saved her life.

“Clinical examination revealed a comfortable patient in no distress, with a single entry wound in the superior pole of the left breast…based on trajectory of bullet entry clinically and evaluation radiologically, the only source of bullet deflection of the bullet is the left breast implant.

The implants lie over the heart and thoracic cavity, and therefore saved her life.

The gun was never recovered and the perpetrator was never found.

This is one of only five cases where implants have blocked bullets, three of which are thought to have saved the victim’s life.